Surviving Sarah

I am so happy to welcome my good friend, Melanie Dale, back to the show. If you have been listening to the show for awhile, then you know that back in 2017-2018, Melanie and I did an episode together every month. It is always fun to have friends on the show. In case you don't know Melanie, she is an author, speaker and podcaster who lives outside of Atlanta. She and her husband are raising 3 kids from 3 continents. And today, she joins me to talk about her new book Calm the Heck Down: How to Let Go and Lighten Up About Parenting. In this episode, we talk about a few things in regards to parenting that we need to calm down about. I go first and share something that I need to calm down about. We could have easily talked about every single topic in Melanie's book but instead we narrowed it down to a few things we need to calm down about: school, sex, work. Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am so happy to welcome Jeff and André Shinabarger to the show today. Jeff is the Executive Director of Plywood People and André is a physician's assistant at Grady Hospital here in Atlanta. Together they host the podcast Love or Work. They recently completed the largest research study on working married couples in the U.S. and spent the last few years interviewing couples who want to stay in love, change the world and raise a healthy family. (They even started this journey traveling in an Airstream!) They asked this question of 100 working couples across a multitude of industries, including professional athletes and artists, entrepreneurs and CEOs, fashion icons and church leaders, while simultaneously surveying 1600 working professionals in partnership with Barna Research: Is It Possible To Change The World, Stay In Love And Raise A Healthy Family? They share not only the results of the survey but also stories from their own lives in their new book Love or Work. I have to say that I don't tend to like marriage books but this one is a must read. I wish I had read it years ago earlier in our marriage. They are vulnerable, candid and address real tensions in honest ways. In this episode, we talk about what helps them stay in love when you grow and evolve over time, how to navigate the tension between work and raising kids and how that affects your relationship. They also share what helps them communicate with other each. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

Today, I welcome Wendy Speake back to the table. This is her third time on the show. She is the co-author of the popular parenting book Triggers: Exchanging Parents Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses, and host of the annual 40 Day Sugar Fast. Her new book, The 40 Day Social Media Fast just came out earlier this month. We sit down to have a conversation about social media. Now more than ever, we are required to be online more. And if you are anything like me, it is shocking if I step back and see how much I turn to social media as a way to cope with the state of my world. And even though there are many times where I would like to break up with social media, so much of life is online now. Which leaves me to sit in the tension of how do I handle social media when so much of my life is online? In this conversation, we talk about how to tell if you need a break from social media, how to fast when you have to be online for everything right now, what surprised her after fasting from social media, and how to reenter social media after taking a fast. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I feel like 2020 keeps delivering. I imagine that you are feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders like I do which is why I'm so happy to welcome Dr. Chinwé Williams to the table today. She is a clinical mental health therapist who helps kids, teens, and adults navigate difficult life seasons and transitions. She specializes in anxiety management and relational trauma recovery. We tend to be aware of the anxiety in our kids but we don't notice it in ourselves. And at this point in 2020 after facing so many stress and anxiety inducing things within our country, I think its important for us to stop and do some self evaluation. Chinwé walks us through what it looks like when anxiety is no longer operating in the normal realm and has moved more into a disorder and needs to be addressed. She also shares what we can do to care for ourselves during these kinds of season. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am so excited to welcome Kelsey Murphy to the table. Kelsey is a Business & Life Coach who has worked with Fortune 500 companies, like Facebook & Twitter, industry thought leaders like Marie Forleo. Her coaching work has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and Huffington Post to name a few. She also hosts a fabulous podcast called Whiskey & Work where she shares advice on navigating the waters of business, life, and relationships. I had so much fun chatting with Kelsey. I didn't want the conversation to end. She has so much wisdom to offer. In this episode, Kelsey helps us figure out how to visualize the life we want to live whether that is in our work, in our relationships or with ourselves. This is one of those episodes full of practical advice that you can start implementing today. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

In today's episode, Sarah shares two big life updates and then talks honestly about how she has been feeling lately--overhwhelmed is an understatement. She shares a few things that are helping her in this season where she feels burnt out.

Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am happy to welcome Ruth and Patrick Schwenk to the show. You may remember Ruth, who is known online as The Better Mom, from when she joined me back on episode 176. Ruth and her husband, Patrick, are no strangers to the blogging and publishing world. They are the founders of ForTheFamily.org and TheBetterMom.com. They also started a brand new podcast in 2020 called Rootlike Faith. Today, they join me to talk about their latest book, In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake: Trusting the God Who Meets Us in Our Storm. After surviving 5 miscarriages and Patrick's cancer diagnosis at the age of 43, they share about what it looked like to feel like you are in the middle of a lake. They talk about walking through the cancer diagnosis with their kids, what the suffering felt like, the difference between discipline and correction, what helped them wait when they didn't see an end and how this shaped their view of life now. No matter what kind of hardship you've walked through, it likely felt uncertain and chaotic. I hope that this episode will encourage you in you feel like you are stuck on a boat in the middle of a lake. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am so happy to welcome Kari Kampakis to the show. She is an author, speaker, podcaster, and blogger from Birmingham, Alabama. Her new book for moms, Love Her Well: 10 Ways to Find Joy and Connection with Your Teenage Daughter empowers mothers to help and guide their daughters through adolescence. I have read the book and it is so helpful. As you will hear in this episode, I put into practice some of her advice the moment after reading it. In this episode, we talk about raising teenage girls. Kari has 4 daughters so she shares something that we need to know about teenage girls. She also talks about how to connect with your teenage daughter, how to elevate relationship over rules, how to love your daughter as she is, and how to choose your words and timing carefully. I'm telling you—so much good stuff in this episode. I want to make sure that you know about my monthly survival kit newsletter. Each month, I send out an email that contains a short essay from me along with all the things that have helped me survive—things like what I'm watching, listening to, reading and just loving. Go to SarahBragg.com to sign up today. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

Today, I am so happy to welcome Amy and Jeffrey Olrick to the show. Jeffrey is a clinical psychologist who has worked with children and families for over twenty years. Amy is an author whose work and writing has been featured in the Guardian and USA Today. Together, the Olricks are the authors of The 6 Needs of Every Child: Empowering Parents & Kids through the Science of Connection. I can't tell you how much I wish I had this book when I started parenting. Most of the books I read in those early years focused on behavior and getting to the motivation behind their behavior. But this book focuses on building connection. This book really gives you handlebars on how to pay attention to their behavior and yours and then how to see what you and they really need. So that's what we talk about in this converation—how to build connection with our kids by paying attention to the 6 needs that they are wired to have. Let me say that recording the podcast has been just like everything else in 2020. I have experienced so many technical issues this year. And so this episode, will sound a little different from a technical standpoint than usual. Sorry about that. And towards the end, a rainstorm happens which sounds like we are chatting under a waterfall. 2020 is wreaking havoc. Thank you for always being so supportive as you listen! Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

Have you ever struggled to admit an unpopular opinion? Or have you ever struggled with appearing to be uncool? Today, Sarah unpacks some of her own unpopular opinions and fears around being perceived as uncool, how that's related to vulnerability and why it's important to show up as yourself.

Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram